


Avatar

by Limes_Parton



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Multi, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-10-13 09:25:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17485538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Limes_Parton/pseuds/Limes_Parton
Summary: Darcy knew that she was different.Later, she knew why. Because she had soulmarks, so different from everybody elses soulmarks. And so many.





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**Author's Note:**

> Hi, so this was in my head and I needed that space for exams, so I had to kick this out. So sorry. 
> 
> It's the first fanfiction that I have finished on my own, published and written in English.  
> So PLEASE, critique me so that I have an opportunity to learn. Thanks. 
> 
> I'm ignoring Age of Ultron (because I don't like it) and Thor 3 (again, don't like it. I'm disappointed.) and bring back my favourite: Darcy Lewis. And the soulmate mark trope. Darcy is one of my favourite characters because she deals with everything without having an IQ above 130, superpowers or more money than Croesus. I think she deserves some powerful!Darcy fic for once.
> 
> This might get a sequel and a picture, explaining the marks in detail, if I find the time.

Darcy Lewis knew that she was different.

When she was six, the skin over her ankle on the inside of her right leg was red and itchy for a day, then the fluke was over and her skin settled down.

Just two months later, the underside of her right arm had a long and wide red strip with white splotches of undamaged skin throughout. She thought that she could make out words, or maybe signs, but nothing was clearly visible. Then the spot was gone after a day.

Red spots came and went, as did doctors saying that she had a rare form of neurodermatitis. Her parents got increasingly worried when Darcy turned 12 and no soulmate marks were to be seen.  
Her father took to drink, subsequently, her mother divorced her dad, taking Darcy with her to her new husband, a soldier living on an army base.  
She liked Mark well enough and learned very much from him. She learned that soulmarks were intensely private, but some people could just tell whether someone had found their soulmate or not. That her parents had been soulmates when they met and that soulmates sometimes evolve in so polar directions, that even a soul bond couldn't keep them together, like her mom and dad. She learned how to shoot, how to kick a guy in the nuts if he grabbed her boobs and how to get away. She learned that she was loved, with or without a mark.  
Her father died due to organ failure 2 years later. She went to the funeral with Mark, paying respect even though she wasn't sure he deserved her respect. Her mother was already having Chemo and even if she didn't, she probably wouldn't have wanted to go to the funeral.  
Her mother died a year after that. 16 years old, still no markings, she had only her stepdad keeping her sporadic company between tours. She didn't mind. The army base was home. The housewives and -men staying behind took care of her, watched out for her.  
She hung out with the guys, mainly Marty, Jack and Eams, recovering from PTSD and did odd jobs to save up money for College. She didn't tell them about her markless state and they didn't ask. They all had their demons and nobody pried, but they listened if you wanted to tell. The guys taught her how to poker and how to morse, how to code and how to disguise. When she came around, so thoroughly disguised that they mistook her for a guy, they laughed and let her shoot with them, drink with them and called her sister. No marks appeared, but she was liked and appreciated. Who needed soulmate marks anyway?  
The only time she couldn't cover up her mark-less state was at PE in school. Shunned by schoolmates for being the „freak without marks", she had to do school projects and everything fun outside of school by herself or with the three Musketeers, Marty obviously being d'Artagnan. Thankfully, Darcy liked being the mastermind behind mischief and getting „Credit" for her tricks in form of detentions - when she was caught - which happened almost never.  
That didn't change when she had to write a paper over black light and it's properties for her physics class after she had exchanged one glass slide of a light spectrum experiment with a Darcy Lewis Special, a slide with dicks drawn all over it. She darkened the room and switched on the light. Her skin lit up with markings all over her.  
White lines that couldn't be seen under normal light, were perfectly recognisable under black.  
The underside of her right arm showed a …. sperm? What the fuck? On her right leg, directly above her ankle was a triangle. And she found at least three more shapes, one on her tummy and one on each of her thighs.  
And Darcy knew she would be loved. She was the best kind of freak. Not mark-less, but mark-full. She was loved and appreciated without marks, but her marks proofed that she would be loved for the rest of her life, even if she couldn't go to clubs and party like other kids her age. She would be taken to hospitals and „study facilities" or whatever potentially bad people could do with marks like hers. So she didn't tell anyone.  
Nothing of this stopped her from pouring sugar in Mister Adams car tank.

7 years later...  
Darcy was feeling stupid, so very, very stupid. She was working together with an Astrophysicist for 3 weeks now, and only now did she realise that her markings, the stuff she stared at on her skin for a couple of years now, were constellations! How could she have been so stupid! It was quite obvious, but many star constellations were just one line somewhere or looked like something totally different! How was she supposed to know that her marks weren't directions of where to go when she asked someone where to find the nearest Starbucks or something?! Maybe she would work in a giant office building where someone drew her a map of how to get to Gladys, the accountant?  
Dumbledore had a scar that looked like the London Underground system on his knee for Christ's sake! Maybe the sex was so great, that she would have eleven kids and those were the first squiggles they drew?! But no. Her marks were fairy lights on the black canvas that was the universe, as seen from earth. She banged her head repeatedly on her desk and then started looking at some of Janes charts and books to find out which stars were found on her skin...

Thor had come down to earth and had found a soulmate in Jane. Eric explained that he couldn't possibly be *the Thor* god of thunder and fertility.  
She met Phil Coulson, an iPod stealing government official. She ate pop tarts, Pumpkin Spice flavour, basically, the only thing the stupid thugs from a shady Alphabet Soup government organisation had left for her and Jane.  
She saw how Agent Ipodthief slunk away with a six-pack of beer and sandwiches onto the roof opposite of their building. Hopefully, whoever that was for choked on it. She wished she could have shaken the beer cans before Agent Ipodthief got his hands on them.  
Darcy was excited seeing a rash on her sun-kissed skin. Turning the black light she had mail ordered all those years ago on, she checked her marks.  
The strange symbol on the right side of her neck below her ear was no longer a white outline. It was a glittering, sunny neon yellow.  
She was a little sad. A marking had changed, indicating her meeting her soulmate and she couldn't clearly attach that to any person. Who's was it? She had met Eric, Thor, Coulson, and around 20 thugs. So plus minus 24 potential soulmates. Great. Just great.  
She checked her other marks. The one on her left shoulder was a bright, light blue and the triangle at her ankle was purple. The mark on her left thigh was a dark blue, like a sapphire. The rest were their standard white.  
Darcy cried, she had found soulmates, she had the marks, but her Soulmates didn't have her marks or any mark of hers really. And even if they did, they would never know. And she would never know who they were. And if it was Thor, or Coulson or a couple of black-suited men, they had or would have soulmates. So she would have to fit into an already established relationship. She couldn't embark on a new relationship with someone. In a society full of perfect pairs, perfect loves, she was the odd one out. The reality, that she would never have one she could purely call hers hit her. This sucked monkey balls.  
Darcy cried through the night, and if no flame puking robot had shown his metal ass she would have cried through the next week.

She stayed in New Mexico with Jane, in contact with („Where is my iPod?!") Phil Coulson, the other Agents, Thor and his warriors all went away. Even Eric said goodbye and vanished with SHIELD somewhere. She managed to get on so many peoples nerves that she landed a call with Maria Hill, deputy director of SHIELD. Her iPod was in the mail two days later. She sent a Puente Antiguo Postcard with „Thanks!" back. She didn't tell Jane, but when she woke up and went running through the cool desert at night, it wasn't the flaming robot that had woken her. In her dreams, she stood in front of a gravestone with her name on it, no one in sight except the guys sinking her coffin into the ground and the priest, lamenting about the loss of life. Or a cute kid looked at her, asking why she didn't have a daddy. Darcy tried to explain that the father of her beloved child wasn't her soulmate and therefore, didn't stay with her, but woke up when she choked on the words.

Phil called, and she and Jane went to Norway.  
Darcy keeps Jane from trying to restore the Bifrost desperately at the expense of her health. She wanted Thor and she needed him and she was in pain. Darcy couldn't understand because she hadn't found her soulmate and if she did she would understand in how much pain Jane was and how her heart was bleeding with every beat.  
It hurt so much, she knew that Jane didn't mean it but it still hurt. In a Tequila infused haze on the roof of the observatory, in the freezing cold, Darcy told Jane. She didn't care that maybe someone could hear her, or that pain wasn't a competition or that she was a freak or that she had decided a long time ago that marks shouldn't matter or or or...  
„I'll never find a mate, Jane. I'm markless. I'm a glitch in the universe.", it wasn't the whole truth, but this would make Jane understand.  
Jane tried to sit up straight, but only managed it half ways, leaning on one arm and staring at her. Slowly, tear after tear made their way out of their eyes and dropped, freezing on the ground. Jane raised the Tequila bottle to Darcy and she took it, taking a loooong swig. Jane leaned against her and they cried together.

The Chitauri invaded New York and by the time they heard of it, Thor was already gone again. Jane packed up and Darcy followed her to her mothers' townhouse in London. She hooked up with Ian, but no new mark appeared, no mark filled with colour. Thor came, Jane slapped him, they vanished, Eric danced naked around Stonehenge and Thor and Jane came back. This time, not one, but several portals opened in the sky. London was marked by destruction, ripped open. She tried not thinking about it, about everything having a proper marking, except her. Cities had graffiti, signs, buildings, hell, even land-marks! Actual marks!  
Eric made her pancakes some mornings and put pants on when she requested it.

Jane accepted Starks offer and they were off to New York.  
Happy picked her, Jane and Thor up at the private airfield where they deboarded Starks private jet. Darcy will never see economy and business class in the same light.  
Virginia -Pepper- Potts greets them at Avengers Tower and shows them Janes new lab space. She introduces them to Jarvis and tells them to call her Pepper. Darcy is slightly flabbergasted. Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries and kick-ass roundhouse kick boss woman Pepper Potts knows her name. HER. NAME!  
Jane, Dr Banner and 'Tony' were like children. They threw tantrums and you had to tell them when to eat, drink, shower or to go to sleep.  
Darcy started her work by getting U, Dummy and Butterfingers on her side by petting and oiling them and Jarvis by getting those three to clean up the labs. Tony looked at her strangely. She gets them all in bed, or in Tony's case, on the couch and on one memorable occasion, she gets together with Jarvis to open up Tony's lab doors and threatens Tony to go to the shower. He doesn't listen. Butterfingers whirred from the left with a bucket of water in his claw, U holds a bar of soap out for Darcy. She asks Jarvis if Tony would come to harm if his project came into contact with water and on hearing a no, drenches Tony with Butterfingers water bucket. Tony shrieked and ran out of the lab and to the shower in his room. Jarvis thanked Darcy by having a coffee and cheesecake delivered to her in her lunch break the next day.

Darcy isn't stupid. She saw that other marks had filled in first thing when she took off her clothes before going to bed that first evening. She knows that none of the flight attendants on the private plane could be it, because this time, her markings had itched like crazy. They had only started itching when she stepped into the lab with Bruce and Tony.  
Darcy discovered that the squiggle on her right arm turned a brilliant red and the big kind of like triscele thing on her back is a glittering dark green. The kind of rectangle on her right shoulder is a light green and has a glow to it that the others haven't. But the yellow one on her neck actually sparkles, like it was painted with one of those kids glitter glue pens. So... whatever.

She tries to flirt with Bruce in an effort to get at least one of her soulmates on board. She is firm if gently, rebuffed. When she tries with Tony, he returns the flirtations with humorous banter, but when she is alone in her room/flat hybrid later that day, Jarvis tells her that 'Sir is uncomfortable with advances of such nature since he is in a committed relationship with Ms Potts.'. Darcy makes herself Mac 'n Cheese, drinks on of the wine bottle her apartment came pre-stocked with and passes out crying on her bed. It's the first time she doesn't feel self-pity, but utter despair when crying over her soulmate marks.

One evening, Jane secured in bed with Thor and Tony asleep on the couch, Darcy brings a beer and a chamomile tea to the lab and sits down next to Bruce.  
Bruce humms content and drinks some of the tea.  
„Shouldn't you go to bed?", he murmurs over the data compiling on the screen in front of him.  
„I'll go if you go. I want all my scientists fed, watered and in bed before I drop. I want my Team Science in tip-top condition."  
Bruce turns to her: „You know who I am. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate you doing this, but you shouldn't be here alone with me."  
The 'in case I turn big and green' goes unsaid.  
„Bruce, I am not afraid of you." Darcy knew this was one of those make-or-break moments. This discussion was going to decide on a future out of several possible futures laying ahead of her.  
Bruce looks away. The silence stretches out and becomes bigger and bigger till Darcy sets her beer down and says: „We are all freaks here. You aren't that special.", with a smile.  
Bruce's head snaps around and he looks intensely at her. Darcy looks straight back.  
Bruce turns back to the screen. „You are nice and normal. You could get out."  
Darcy knows that he doesn't mean the lab.  
She thinks a couple minutes about it. It would be a relief to tell someone who wouldn't judge her and she wanted Bruce to know that she would do the same for him. His tenser posture, clearly indicating how his guard comes up makes her decision for her.  
She stands up, pulls her blouse out of her jeans and unbuttons it. Bruce looks up startled. His eyes widen and he moves away as if she had suddenly burst in flames or something.  
„Darcy? What are you...?", he starts and stops, looking at her.  
She lifts her arms and turns, presenting her unmarked skin to him. „Do I have to strip all the way to show you that I'm missing something pretty essential?"  
She stares at him, her hands on her hips, her skin bare except for the odd scar that someone would accumulate throughout life.  
Bruce looks at her stunned. „Jarvis, privacy protocol please.", he says after a minute of staring. „As you wish, Doctor Banner."  
„You have no soulmate markings anywhere?", he asks, not shocked, but definitely taken aback.  
„Well... not exactly. I'm a freak of nature." Darcy drops her arms and picks up her top.  
Bruce tilts his head slightly. „What's that supposed to mean?"  
Darcy starts pulling her blouse back on. „Look, I only wanted to show you that you are not alone. I'm a soulless demon and if everybody knew, I would be hunted like you are. Only the fact that soulmarks can appear everywhere on the human body saves me."  
„There is more to it than that isn't there?"  
If Darcy grimaces, Bruce doesn't ask.

 

„So you are the Shield Sister."  
And just like that, Darcy met Steven Rodgers. Captain America - „Please call me Steve, ma'am". What the fuck? Darcy's mind is blown.  
Jane suggests that Steves soulmate might have died already and that she, Darcy, and Steve could maybe go out. Darcy isn't convinced, but when she meets him one morning, at 4 am in the communal kitchen, he coming from a run, she being on a (Coffee-) run, she decided that at least a new friend couldn't hurt.  
„So Tony said that you liked to go to amusement parks around here, Coney Island? I haven't done a lot of sightseeing yet, so I was wondering if you'd like to go there with me."  
He gives her a million-watt smile and says yes.

They ate junk food and Steve got her a very fluffy panda at one of the shooting galleries.  
She shoots just as well, surprising him and leaves an equally fluffy, albeit grumpy looking, turtle in his arms.

From there on, she plays games with Barton if he is there, has coffee dates or discovers New York with Steve, works with Jane, Tony and Bruce and occasionally, Natasha glides by in her effortless kind of walk. Darcy leaves her some of the cookies she bakes occasionally and Natasha leaves tiny notes on empty plates. Pepper and Darcy sometimes meet in the kitchen, at ungodly hours of the morning and have a few pleasant conversations over Coffee.

Steve draws her and gifts her a portrait of herself, painted in oil pastels and signed with „Steve Rodgers, 2013" at the bottom. She makes him a playlist with the greatest music from the 50s till the 2010s. They talk, even cuddle, he draws and tells her about Bucky.

She stops crying. She knows that she has no chance in hell to get any one of the persons that she knows is her soulmate. All of them are attached to someone else in some way and, considering the strong personalities in question, aren't likely to give their soulmates up. In a tiny, dark corner of her mind, she still holds out hope that one of the shield agents that she probably had her mark from in New Mexico would realise he or she had another soulmate and would find their way to her. Princess Darcy, with long brunette hair, kept hostage in the high tower.

Darcy doesn't believe in fairy tales.

  
Of course, it couldn't last. One evening, her phone rings and a military officer informs her that he tried to contact her at her old address, her flat near Culver but couldn't reach her there. He asks if he could send a representative round to her. She asks if the matter couldn't be handled over the phone. Deep inside, Darcy knows what he will tell her. He asks if she is sure. He asks if she is alone if she has friends or relatives around. She is in the lab and looks at Jane. It feels like a block of icy foreboding has settled into her stomach with the force of Thor's hammer hitting an enemy. She says: „Yes, go ahead.", and the blow comes. She doesn't break down. Not there at least. She thanks the Officer for informing her and asks to be called again in the morning for funeral arrangements before ending the call. She leaves the lab, she goes to the elevator, she steps into the elevator and the doors close. Jarvis asks her, where she wants to go. Darcy breaths and breaths, but there isn't enough air and the walls are coming closer and she blurts: „My floor, J.", before sinking down against the back wall. Her vision gets blurred, tears are running down her face, she tries to breathe but there is no air and the room gets smaller and smaller...  
Jarvis more and more frequent questions betray that the AI has an, albeit limited, capacity to get frantic. As Darcy doesn't answer, he lowers the elevator to Tonys and Bruces floor and opens the elevator doors while informing everybody in the lab, currently Tony, Bruce and Natasha, that „Miss Lewis is distressed and currently in the elevator."  
Natasha, being the fastest, reaches her first and carries her, bridal style, out of the elevator into the relatively big foyer each floor has. She puts her down gently, puts her hands on Darcy's shoulders and softly intones „Breath with me. In and out, again, in and out."  
Bruce and Tony come to a halt next to them, Bruce sits down behind Darcy and rubs her back and Tony sits down a little bit away from them, blocking the entrance to the semi alcove with his body. He fishes his mobile out of his jeans and types a quick message to Jarvis.  
Jarvis answers in text form: „Miss Lewis received a call at 09:29 this evening. The call came from a number belonging to Army Joint Casualty Center. Miss Lewis stepfather Mark Dunkan is listed as Army Specialist."  
Tony texts back: „Call her soulmate."  
Jarvis takes an unusual amount of time to respond before the text lights up Tony's phone. „Miss Lewis has no soulmate."  
He knows that Jarvis doesn't take that long for such a simple answer. He knows that Jarvis would know of her markings and would have chosen different words, like 'hasn't found her soulmate yet' or something similar. At least, normally. Obviously, this girl isn't normal.  
Tony looks at the young woman on the floor, comforted by the Hulks better half and the Black Widow. He asks Jarvis: „What do we know about mateless persons, whats the current scientific standpoint?"  
Jarvis answer is prompt and just as disturbing „There is none as there are no mateless persons recorded."  
Tonys face must have shown something, because Bruce gives him that look that Pepper gives him when she is really pissed. The look says 'don't you dare to stick your foot in it'.  
Darcy, maybe thankfully, was not up for calming down and had passed out. Bruce picked her up after making sure that her breathing was coming out steady and brought her into her room.  
Natasha, always perceptive, had called Steve who sat down next to Darcy's bed, watching her. Then she joins Tonys and Bruces silent conversation/staring contest in front of Darcy's room.  
„Jarvis, dear, would you enlighten me as to what is going on?"  
„Miss Lewis has presumedly received bad news about her stepfather and Sir and Dr Banner are currently staring at each other, probably because of a – glitch - in Miss Lewis personal data."  
The tone the AI chose for 'glitch' and 'personal' made it clear that he disapproved of the topic being discussed at all.  
„Oh come on Jarvis, it isn't a secret, is it? She told Bruce and I bet that Jane knows."  
The AI stayed silent for a few uncomfortable heartbeats. „Miss Lewis made clear that she is uncomfortable with this topic." Jarvis tones were so clipped, a knife edge wouldn't cut any less.  
Natasha tilted her head to one side. No information was forthcoming.  
Bruce sighed. „Tony, its none of our business."  
„But Bruce, maybe we could help her! Maybe she has a Micro Tatoo and doesn't realise or-"  
„This is personal Tony! And she has just lost her father, so give her space!"  
Tony took a step back, not really afraid of the Hulk coming out but stumped by Bruce's anger.  
After a second, Tony nodded. Bruce and Tony look at each other and head off in different directions.

Darcy wakes up a couple of hours later. Steve sleeps in the wing chair normally next to the window next to her bed. Bruce sits at the end of her bed, looking at her with a steaming mug in his hand. He put the mug into her hands and she smiled at him. She was confused, why where they here? Did she have – oh, that's why.  
She drank from the cup, the liquid hot but not scolding. Nobody talked but Darcy was painfully aware two pairs of eyes looking at her.  
Darcy clears her throat and looks down on her hands. Strangely, the most prominent emotion she feels is shame. She is ashamed that these people, people she hadn't had that much to do with (Steve a little bit) have seen her at her lowest and are now wasting their time on her. She is an orphan, technically has been an orphan since her Mom died. And she had liked Mark, but she was hardly devastated beyond repair if she was honest with herself. Mark was at her graduation and was home between tours and they went on a couple of holidays together, but they weren't as close as she and her mother had been, or she and her dad, before the bottle became his closest, most important thing.  
But now, she is absolutely alone.  
She had no real family as in blood relatives, she had no aunt or uncle that had married into her family, she didn't have that many friends, well, Jane, but Jane is also her boss and they had gone through some fantastically bad situations together... but she is pretty much a glorified assistant/secretary without formally trained research skills in her field of work.  
Darcy stopped before the next panic attack would crash over her and drown her. She needed to keep a clear head. Marks funeral had to be arranged, his things would need to be put into storage until she had a permanent home for herself and wasn't living as Janes +1 anymore.  
She put the cup on the nightstand next to her bed and patted herself down to find her phone. Ignoring the two people in the room tracking her with their eyes she sat down at her desk and pulled a pen and her college block towards her. She needed to call Marks friends and family if they hadn't already been told and needed to arrange everything with the military. She needed a coffin and movers and maybe one of the neighbours could help her by letting the movers into the house. That way she wouldn't have to go back. Thank god that the house belonged to the military and that she didn't need to deal with house agents and peoples credit scores and such.  
She called and everyone she could think of, and then some. Arrangements are made, for the body and the coffin and the ceremony. A cup of tea and a sandwich appeared and disappeared at her elbow. She needed to get this done before she went back to sleep. She needed to – someone shut the lid of her laptop close and two arms wrapped around her from behind.  
Darcy panicked for a second and struggled, but the familiar voice of Jack floated from somewhere behind her „Marty, you can't startle a lady like that and expect her to come willingly! Besides, no lady would go anywhere with you. Not with a face like that."  
Darcy relaxed and let herself be dragged out of the chair. Directly behind her, Marty snorted. „You shouldn't throw stones out of your height challenged little glass house short stack. The ladies would look right over you anyway."  
Eams came in from the door and put three duffle bags on the floor. He carefully stepped over them, gave Darcy a kiss on the cheek and said „Hello princess.".  
Then he turned to the other two: „You fuckers didn't even greet her properly, did you?"  
Marty and Jack fell over themselves to greet Darcy. Marty, still holding her tight shifted so his head came around over Darcy's shoulder and kissed her on her cheek as well. „My Darcy-bear knows that I love her and that cuddling is a perfectly fine way to greet a lady, asshat."  
Jack basically sprinted to her front and gave her a sweeping kiss on her hand while lamenting about 'the great pain of your absence from my life' and 'the joy of seeing you brings colour back into my sight'.  
„You trolls shouldn't be here. How the hell did you know where I was staying?!"  
Jack grinned, her hand still in his. „We wrote you Emails and tried calling but you didn't answer and suddenly, Marty was called by a wise wizard named Mr Jarvis, telling us that our princess was kept in a tower guarded by a dragon with red and gold scales. So we mounted our steeds and made haste to save the princess from certain doom." Darcy slapped him playfully on the shoulder. „I'm a self-rescuing princess, but back up 's always appreciated."  
And just like that, they landed in a cuddle pile on the bed. „Now, seriously, why are you here?"  
The three looked at each other and Marty said: „Well, Jack and I left the service and opened a bar and Eames just finished his last tour, so we didn't have anything better to do really..."  
„You were worried about me because of Mark." Darcy was never one to let a herd of elephants trampling through the room. The three looked at each other, having a silent conversation with eyebrows only.  
„Well, that too. We didn't want you to be alone. You are family."  
An uncomfortable silence stretched out.  
They had never talked about it. It was an open secret that Jack hat enlisted as soon as he was old enough because his dad, like Darcy's biological father, liked alcohol more than his son and let him know that with his fists. Marty and Eames were out with 4 others, doing patrol in Afghanistan when they were attacked and captured. A useful identity mix-up led their captors to think they had some high ups in their grasp instead of the low ranking officers that they were. They never talked about the things that happened while the terrorists had them, at least not with Darcy.  
And now, Darcy was the one having a secret that the others kind of knew but not in detail.  
„I'm never alone, not really anyways."  
Jacks eyebrows shot up and Eames eyes locked into hers as if trying to extract what he wanted to know. Marty broke the awkwardness up by ordering everyone to brush teeth and go to bed.

  
The funeral was a standard military affair – and absolutely extraordinary all the same. On one hand, because her dad was laid to rest, on the other hand, because Bruce, Steve, Jane and Thor were there, all in black, all looking stunning despite the disguises and probably armed, even when no weapons were in sight. Jack and Eames flanked Darcys left, Marty her right. Darcy stood up and accepted the folded flag with both hands. The music came and went, Darcy, shook hands and finally, everybody was gone. Steve and Bruce decided to leave, feeling too exposed just standing there that long. Marty, Eames and Jack said their goodbyes. They didn't want to leave Darcy directly after the funeral, but Darcy had no money for a get together after the funeral and didn't want to be a bother. The guys offered to clean out the house for her, put the things in storage and deal with the paperwork. She was thankful and promised to visit them soon. They left reluctantly, leaving only Jane and Thor a little away in the direction of a standard, black SUV. Darcy stepped up to the grave, looking down on the sleek black coffin.  
She grabbed her purse, opened it and took a round, dark object out. She bend down, lay the object on the ground in front of the open grave and quickly stepped on it with her black closed high heels. It craked and Thor turned around, turning Jane with him, and looked at her. Darcy bent down again, picked the shards up and let them tinkle from her hands down on the coffin. „I love you daddy. I miss you. I'm sorry I didn't tell you."  
She wanted to tell him that she knew that he would have taken her secret to the grave, literally if that was what it took. She wanted to tell him that he was her dad, her daddy, even if she had never called him that in life. But she knew that Mark was a smart man. He knew that she would miss him, that he was family to her.  
She stood and took sunglasses out of her clutch. She put them on and walked over to the others.  
She didn't look at them and said „Thanks for coming. Let's go home.", ignoring the looks the couple exchanged.

  
Darcy sat on the ground of the little wind shaded balcony at the side of the top levels of Stark Tower, looking at the setting sun and occasionally taking a swig from a formerly full Tequila bottle.  
The glass doors slid open and Tony stepped out, Whisky bottle in one hand, tumbler in the other.  
He sat down next to Darcy and they drank together in silence.  
At least half an hour or more must have passed before Tony took a deep breath.  
„Darcy, you don't have to tell me anything. When you had the panic attack I tried to call your soulmate or -mates and found none in your file. I just want to help. Bruce told me that there was more to it. I don't want to pry, but Jarvis and SI are nothing to sneeze at and together we could find-"  
„No." Darcy didn't scream or was particularly loud and the wind carried words away pretty quickly so far up, but she was clearly heard none the less.  
Tony looked at her and drank. She took another swig.  
„It's nice of you to offer, but that's not needed. No All Stars or Coffee mugs or one of my famous opening lines on skin anywhere. I'm... well, a freak... Nah, soulmates hate me, like one of those fake ads online 'doctors hate this weight loss trick' or somethin'. God, I'll never be drunk enough for any conversation 'bout this."  
Tony looked at her over the bottom of the bottle pressed to his lips.  
Challenges were Starks springboards to innovation after all. First Soulmatemark-less person in, well, ever? Very, very interesting. But for now, Tony shimmied over to Darcy and wrapped an arm around her. She leaned on him and her head sagged on his shoulder and the tears slowly dropped from her eyes onto his dark grey shirt.

Tony didn't bring it up for one whole week after that, a record for Stark curiosity. He strolled into the lab, two coffees in hand and sat down on her desk, where she was doing data entry for Jane.  
„So, Lewis, up for coffee bribes?", he gestured at the coffee.  
„Always. What am I being bribed for?"  
He didn't look at her and sipped at his black sludge, aka 'Coffee'. „Just want you to show me your marks, or none marks, or whatever mysterious secrets your hiding on your skin."  
Jane dropped her pencil and turned around.  
Darcy got up and stepped between Tony's legs, dangling from the table. She leaned over and whispered in his ear: „Why, Mister Stark, methinks you haven't asked Lady Potts if she is okay with you getting me naked."  
Tony went rigid. So she had marks! Oh, how he loved puzzle solving! Soulmate marks tended to be hand sized, sometimes a little bit bigger or smaller, but they never covered the whole body. And if they did, he would have seen them on Darcy by now... or not, she mostly wore long sleeves and skirts or shorts only with ridiculous tights, she could have hidden them... Tony didn't really notice that Darcy said „Thanks for the Coffee" and sauntered out of the lab, mug in her hand. But he did notice Jane Foster getting in his face and screeching at him „What the fuck are you getting at, Tony?!"  
From that moment on, Darcy would have no quiet moment.

  
Clint was the first to swing around her room while she was watching Dog Cops in the evening. He stayed above the covers but stuck his hand in her popcorn bowl and watched with her. She had a Tshirt on, her arms were bare and the lower half of her body was under the covers. He might be a spy and very discreet, but she noticed his glance.  
„Did Tony send you?"  
He didn't look the slightest bit guilty at the unspoken accusation.  
„He bet a 30-minute flight with his suit against any of us finding out your marks."  
And for the first time since the call about Mark came, Darcy smiled.  
„You gonna tell me what marks you have?"  
She stuffed her face with popcorn and chewed loudly. He did the same. They pointedly sat next to each other chewing for a few moments. Dog Cops continued on the screen.  
„Nope."

  
Tony tried again the next day.  
„I have three pairs of Jimmy Choos that could be yours.", he said, flying into the lab and placing himself on her desk again. „No thank you."  
Tony flipped his sunglasses (why was he wearing sunglasses inside a building?!) up onto his hair and looked at her. „What? Every woman want's Jimmy Choos."  
„Not this woman. Most Jimmy Choos have a pointed front, or peep toes, making them extremely uncomfortable. I'm not paying one and a half grand to feel uncomfortable. If I want to feel uncomfortable, I watch Twilight on amazon prime."  
Tony looked slightly flabbergasted, slightly impressed and a lot amused. He liked challenges. He left her his coffee. She didn't drink whatever was in that mug. She was 89% certain it was kerosene.

Natasha slipped her medical file under her door with the customary tiny post it on it. On that, she had written „?".

Jane tried next. „Darcy~", she wheedled. „Yes, Jane.", Darcy said. Continuing to read the form SI's accountant division had sent her to fill out. „You love me as your boss don't you?", Jane asked, pushing a cinnamon roll towards Darcy.  
„Darcy looked at the sticky, gooey pastry. „Maybe..."  
„So you tell Tony what he wants to know so I can test the Arc reactor as a power source for my Bridge?"; Janes rattled off.  
Darcy smiled and sighed simultaneously.  
„Jane, no. He will give you a reactor whether or not I tell him, because he is just as curious as you are. And that is intensely private information!"  
Jane had the good grace to look guilty and gave the roll another small push in Darcy's direction, obviously as an apology.  
Then Jane took her chair from her desk and sat down next to Darcy. „You know, if there is any chance that you could find your soulmate, I would help you, right? Regardless of Tony."  
Darcy crumpled a little bit at Janes earnest face. „I know, it's just, I'm not normal and I'm afraid of what might happen if someone finds out... I know that you guys would be discreet, Jarvis too, but look at what happened to Bruce. Even Steve, in some regard! They were prisoners of their own government, pretty much indefinitely, because some high ranking Army Asshole wanted to study them. Think of it Jane, people without soulmates, people who don't have soulmates back home or find soulmates in the field. I thought about this for the last 10 years and every army would love to have people like that."  
Silence filled the space between them. Janes field wasn't biology or soulmate studies, but she knew that some people with 'anomalies' concerning their soulmate marks were sent to special government labs when their doctor registered them. Darcy had to have been cautious about that as that had not happened so far. What happened to Bruce and in part to Steve, was a dire warning of how wrong such registrations, studies and scientific drive could go.  
Jane decided that, if Darcy really had no soulmarks, as she had said in Norway, she was probably better off this way. „I'm here if you need me."

  
Tony came around again, this time, Dummy was whirring behind him with a large package.  
„I informed myself.-" „You mean you asked Jarvis." „-about the likes and dislikes of certain female members of this Science Team and came up with the most amazing care package." He gestured in a sweeping motion to Dummy, who dutifully rolled forward. „ I present to you-" Tony stuck his hand inside the box. „Comfortable footwear!" And he handed her a pair of Hulk slippers. But that was far from all. „Appropriate drinks and food..." He slipped original Harry Potter butterbeer and a couple chocolate bars in her arms. „....linens for ladies..." He tucked out the biggest, fluffiest blanked Darcy had ever seen. It seemed to expand the more it came out of the box. And it wasn't one of those polyester kinds either, this was floating baby alpaca wool cloud or something. „... entertainment..." he added The Hobbit, hardcover to her overflowing bundle. „... and access to Stark Industries cinematic database. Thousands of movies at your fingertips. You name it, we got it."  
He looked at her consideringly. One chocolate bar slipped out of the bundle and fell to the floor. Dummy whirred forward and picked it up between his tripod fingers. He held it out to Darcy, who put everything in her left arm on the blankie bunched up in her right and grabbed the chocolate.  
„Your request will be considered. Thank you for these kindly gifts."  
And then she walked out of the lab to her room to savage her spoils.  
Nobody approached her for the next couple of days after that.

  
It had become autumn in NYC and a chill was floating through the streets. On the protected balcony of Avengers tower, Darcy sat with her tumbler, a fluffy scarf she had knitted herself slung around her neck and shoulders and the book 'Goethe as a scientist' in her hands. Her tumbler was filled with earl grey with a splash of milk and Darcy was truly content. This was the life. This is how true relaxation felt like. Looking down on the City and Central Park, drinking tea instead of work-hard-play-hard SI Coffee, just Jazz playing in the background was missing. But who needed that when beautiful City sounds floated up to her? The glass door that she had come threw opened and Dummy whirred through, slightly bouncing over the threshold. He had a couple of childlike drawings in his tripod hand and held them out to Darcy. He proceeded to look at her expectantly and tilted his tripod questioningly to one side.  
She looked at the first drawing. It was Iron Man surrounded by a blue puddle. She looked at Dummy. „Did you draw these?" Dummy shook his head, no. She looked at the picture again. Mabe the tiny blue dots weren't rain...  
„Is Iron Man sad?" Dummy shook his head up and down. Okay, next picture. It seemed to be an arm, looked at with a magnifying lens, crossed by a fat red line, surrounded by a red circle.  
„ He is sad because he can't look at my skin?" Dummy whirred his head up and down again. Darcy sighed, marked the page in her book, took her tumbler, the book and the drawings and got up.  
„Follow me, we are going to make your daddy reasonably happy again."

Darcy picks up Jane and Bruce before settling on the couch in Tony's lab.  
„Cute pictograms Stark."  
„Only for you sweetheart."  
Tony put the tool he had out of reach for the bots and rolled over on his chair.  
„Settle in, because Mama is going to tell you a story.", Darcy slid her tumbler open and took a sip of her tea. „When Darcy was a Teen, she discovered that her body is marked pretty much head to toe, but that her markings would only shine in the darkest of nights. Young Darcy studied her marks and noticed that she had more marks than anyone she knew. Her marks were white and so different from everybody else, that she decided to keep them a secret. Then she went to University and, over the course of several years, she noticed that her marks became even more unusual. When she met a soulmate, the white lines turned yellow, blue, green, sparkled or flowed like paint that is just poured or mixed. She was afraid before any of that happened because she knew that the government would dissect her to find out what made her skin tick, so she covered herself in colourful fabrics and lived her life. Of course, when she could isolate the person, she checked as much as she could, if anyone that turned her marks had hers, or was interested in her, but that was not the case. Since then, Auntie Darcy has lived like the only mark-less person in existence. The End."

Tony was the first one that babbled out questions. „What kind of conditions let your markings appear? How many do you have?..." Bruce and Jane joined till Darcy held up her hand.  
„I told you because you are uniquely positioned to meet people that have glowing or otherwise unusual markings on their skin. So far, two marks are still not coloured, so maybe there is someone out there for me, but I'm not optimistic. The recorded max of soulmate marks is 4 and I have at least double that. I debated if I should give myself up for studies, but decided against it. If there are others like me, they would have been found by now and heralded as a great new discovery, or they were hushed up. I deduced long ago that the kind and number and form of my marks makes me unique and therefore, mateless. I hope that you understand why I don' want to be under that kind of scrutiny. Bruce has had that experience, Tony and Jane to some extent through their research."  
Bruce looked at his folded hands, Jane stared blankly at Darcy, obviously in thought and Tony played with the pen in his hands, that he had picked up from seemingly nowhere.  
He was the first to come out of his thoughts. „Are you absolutely certain that none of your soulmate suspects has a mark similar to yours?"  
Darcy looked at her hands. „No, the marks appear under certain light and I couldn't check everyone, but when the mark colours in, I get blemishes, if someone else had a mark like mine, I would have noticed any similar skin irritations. Apart from that, all the suspects", she empathised the word suspects humorously, „were already mated when I met them. They reported being in a stable, fulfilled bond. According to the ISS (//International Soulmate Society), you feel it if you are missing a soulmate."  
„Jarvis, secret servers, file name DLSP, store just a document with the data points just discussed. Leave out name and address, only age and sex. Make some discreet research into unusual soulmarks and look for articles mentioning soulmate-less persons when you have time. Store all of that in the same file, please." He turned to Darcy.  
„I understand why you won't let us experiment with this, but it is interesting and if you change your mind, you know where to find me."  
He rolled back to his workbench. Bruce thanked her for telling him and told her, that if he could do something for her, she only had to ask. Jane hugged her and the two of them crashed on the couch in Darcy's room with two bottles of wine and a romcom film about two pairs of soulmates finding each other because of a holiday house-swap.  
Bruce was the only one not attached, perhaps this got him to check his skin under different light and... and if he didn't, then nothing changed. If he didn't check, his mind didn't even entertain the possibility that he and she could be something more than occasional lab partners. So nothing would have happened, no harm done.

Darcy thought that things might change, that maybe, just maybe, one of the people she loved would show up and love her too.  
Oh boy, was she wrong.

  
Her first indication of something being wrong was Steve moving out because he had finally found his supposedly dead buddy Bucky again. The guy looked fantastic for a zombie.  
Darcy would have liked to say that nothing surprised her until Tony found out that James 'Bucky' Buchanan Barnes had killed his parents. The prince of Wakanda had maybe not calculated how deep wounds ran when he gave Tony that information. Steve, who had moved out a couple months before to give Bucky time to adjust to his new reality, fled together with Bucky and his new buddy Falcon to Wakanda. Tony was angry, not because his father was killed, he hadn't gotten along with Howard that well anyway, but his mom...  
He went after the other winter soldiers with the Black Panther in a spectacular rage induced explosion orgy.  
Again, Darcy would have liked to say that nothing surprised her, till a strange looking guy knocking on her door, explaining that he was Jarvis, but also not, and that the world was going to be fucked over by a giant purple... giant? The strange guy called himself Vision and was an unholy creation of Tony, Bruce and Jarvis. Thor was back from his latest vanishing stunt and told everyone that he was the last Asgardian, Loki had been killed (again), and his aunt was a crazy death-goddess that had died when Asgard was destroyed by a fire demon before the Asgardians that had fled were killed by Thanos.  
As the Avengers were split up and somebody from the UN (Ross, Thaddeus, Asshole extraordinaire) tried to get all the superheroes to sign an accord, which split up the superhero-community even more, a giant hellbent on destroying literally everything was the worst kind of news. So when a NOT DEAD!!! Coulson called, Darcy grabbed a crying Jane and a confused Vision and escaped to the SHIELD bunker Coulson had told her to go to. Thor told them he would meet up with them after he had a new weapon to replace Mjolnir with. He called a crazy ass space taxi and was off-the face-of-the-earth. Literally. Again. Darcy, Vision and Jane stayed incommunicado till Tony Starks new AI, Friday, called Jarvis somehow and told them that they needed to go to Wakanda to have the pretty gem on Visions forehead extracted.  
Darcy was only one soulmate short, had a really, really bad feeling about this. Really didn't want to go... but went anyway. Nobody would listen to her, so why wait for death alone in a bunker, instead of with her friends?

  
She saw the army of depraved raving mad alien beasts at the edge of the wakandan shield dome. She knew that a large portion of her soulmates was out there and that she was useless, wether up here or down there. She had a bit of weapons training and combat, as required by every scientist (and scientist-wrangler) working in Avengers Tower at one of the higher levels and because of Mark.  
Dammit, she had eleven soulmate marks, that were glowing under black light and were very, highly unusual. Why didn't she have a Wonder Woman like superpower that could take out armies?!  
There must be something, anything, that she could do.  
She didn't notice Visions alarmed look when she started to glow or Shuri looking up form her work for a millisecond.  
Darcy was glowing as she stopped the Guy trying to get to Shuri and Vision. Her soulmarks were burning and she felt like she was bursting any second now. She just held up her hand and the... thing? That had tried to attack Shuri stiffened before crunching sounds were heard and the form crumpled, still, to the floor. She pushed and he flew through and subsequently out of the window.  
Shuri had ignored the scuffle and had continued to work on her task of removing the soulstone. Darcy walked to the table, doing what she did without knowing how or why she did it. She took Visions hands and send out her... emotional feelers? It felt like she stretched a muscle to new extremes, well above everyday use and training. Not overly bulky or trained, but strong and persevering nonetheless. Shuri shriek when she suddenly managed to remove the stone from Vision, but the stone hovered over his head and started to... dissolve, for lack of a better word. The stone became mist and then, like a shimmering yellow cloud of contained gas, floated over to Darcy and sank into her.  
She dropped her hands and looked at Shuri and Vision, both looking shocked and unbelieving at her. They saw the dome open from the window and Darcy looked at Vision.  
„Take me to Thanos."

Thanos had all the stones except for the soulstone. Just one stone and he would be invincible.  
Vision came flying and he roared when he found the socket in Visions head empty. Where was that stone?! He struck all of the heroes coming at him down, killing them. Suddenly, everyone was frozen in motion. But he didn't use the Time stone right now.  
But time was standing still, or rather, he and his attackers were standing still. Nobody was moving, only the leaves of damaged trees were floating to the ground.  
A glowing woman with brown hair and dressed in jeans, a burgundy-shirt and grey cardigan, sleeves rolled up, walked towards him. She slid the gauntlet off him with ease.  
She laid the gauntlet next to her on the ground and looked up in his eyes.  
„Hello, Thanos. I'm Darcy."  
Thanos couldn't move, not even his eyes. His body was in this position, frozen, only breathing was apparently still possible. Anger burned through him as he watched the tiny wretched creature in front of him.  
„What are you?" He spat out, not sure if he was understood, because he could barely use his lips to form words.  
Darcy cocked her head to one side. „I'm Darcy, but that doesn't matter. I don't want you killing people. Besides, humans on this planet have always found a way around limited resources using creativity. There was never and will never be such a thing as no resources on this planet. We have done studies about that and our knowledge is fact-based. So your not welcome help is not welcome."  
„You don't know what you're talking about, tiny girl. Give me the gauntlet!"  
Darcy straightened up and touched his chest plate. „You were never loved and your mind was broken at a very young age. But don't worry, we can fix that."  
And with those words, she stepped back, picked up the gauntlet in one hand and laid her other hand on the stones adorning it. There was a flash.

Thanos woke up in the hut he had built himself, looking over a paradise of natures finest. The hate was gone. The hurt was gone, the memories were dull. He was whole again, the only thing remaining was his grief for Gomora. He sat down on the patio, put his head in his hands and cried.

In Wakanda, the army of aliens dissolved and the confused victors were looking around themselves in astonishment before the cries of victory could be heard all the way from the battlefield to the palace.

 

 

  
Darcy dropped unceremoniously on a chaise longue in a very nicely furbished library or study. The walls were lined with bookshelves made out of grey stone, maybe concrete and filled with books. A huge oak desk with one of those classic green glass lamps on a brass frame illuminated the paperwork on it. The paperwork was actually doing itself. Several seals were dipping down onto an ink cushion and clanking down on paper that floated around, sorting itself into several piles.

Opposite Darcy was a sofa, covered in the same brown leather as the chaise longue she was on and right and left of her were two high back armchairs, also covered in brown leather and in the same style. Between these seating arrangements was a coffee table, glass covering a brass frame.  
On the table stood two pots, one high and relatively slim, the other round and short. Between them was three-tier server filled with different coloured macaroons. On a small delicate round table next to her chaise longue stood a delicate white china cup with a golden edge on a similar saucer, waiting to be filled. On a similar dark oak table next to the armchair on her right stood a similar saucer and cup, but filled with a steaming liquid and a finger stuck through the handle. Well manicured fingernails on delicate, long fingers wrapped around the thin white china and just that picture would have been sufficient to express elegance. This exact image was probably next to the word 'elegance' in the Oxford dictionary. Come to think of it, the porcelain was probably Wedgwood.  
The hand belonged to an equally elegant woman. She was sitting in the armchair like it was a trone, the velvet of her emerald green dress hugging her in all the right places. Her black hair had a little bit of volume, slight curls. Her Makeup seemed to consist out of bright red lipstick, Mascara and wonderful, perfect skin.

„Hello, Darcy of Midgard. I am Hela, Goddes of Death. Please, help yourself. Coffee, tea, biscuits.", the elegant hand not wrapped around the delicate cup made a wide encompassing gesture to the table. Darcy, as if she was in trance, filled her cup with tea, Earl Grey, she noticed and added a splash of milk. She sipped a tiny amount, before setting the delicate cup aside as if it could break at any moment and looked at the woman.

„You have such exciting ancestry. You are a puzzle, arranged by the Norns to solidify into a single, perfect, humanoid individual.  
As far as I can reconstruct, a Celestial tried to take over the Universe, breeding kids all over the place. A few thousand years ago, he came to earth. The children of that union bred and his genetics were watered down more and more. But in your specific bloodline, one of your ancestors managed to snag himself a Valkürie. Probably Lirael, not many Valküries were banned to earth for disagreeing with Odin. Then the Cree experiments brought forth what you call Inhumans today. Some very unique genetic markers slid into human DNA over time, in your case several different strands from different species, till you came. A thoroughly new species with phenomenal energy pathways, never before seen in any universe. That alone made you capable to survive the contact to one of the infinity stones. You would have not been able to wield the energy though. You were chosen by love to be it's avatar, just like I was chosen to be one of the avatars of death. That is a special position, but not important right now. On top of all that, you were blessed by Thor, crown prince of Asgard. Really, the more I learn about the sources of your power, the less I wonder why the soulstone chose you as his conductor."

Hela wrapped her delicate hand around her cup and took a sip. Darcy stared at her.  
„I thought you died." Hela put her cup back on the saucer with a slight 'klink' that made the hair on Darcy's arms stand up.  
Hela sighed. „Yes, but I'm an avatar of death. So I have to do paperwork now for... the foreseeable future." She stuffed a macaroon rather viciously unladylike in her mouth. Apparently, Darcy had hit a sore spot.  
„What does Avatar mean? Do I have to master all four elements?" Hela looked at her with trepidation. You could see the „WTF?!" and „Why meeee?!" in her arched eyebrow.  
„No. There are entities in all living things that are truly immortal. Mainly life and death. At the beginning there were only those two, two singular entities, forever locked in opposing positions.  
So they decided that there needed to be a third, someone who decided if the other two couldn't and thus, love was born. After that came a couple more, like chaos, greed, trickery and other natures. And if balance is needed, those natures choose a person to take care of it. They outfit them with special powers and a rough outline of what they want to have accomplished and off you go. But the big three, life, death and love, sometimes choose more than one, one or none at all to do their bidding. Congratulations, Darcy Lewis."

 


End file.
